President Donald Trump's relentless criticism of expanded voting by mail has been a central theme in his reelection campaign.
He also has increasingly focused on a related target: so-called "ballot harvesting," the legal practice that allows third parties to collect mail ballots and drop them off at the post office or election stations.
Ironically, Trump may have guaranteed the tactic will be even more pervasive this fall because of his moves to limit funding for the United States Postal Service.
Following their success two years ago in the midterm congressional elections, Democrats already were planning on larger ballot-harvesting efforts this year in states where it is allowed, even before the coronavirus pandemic.
When the outbreak struck, health officials urged people not to gather in groups and expressed concern at the sight of long lines of voters waiting at polling places across the country during the spring primaries.
That convinced many governors to encourage more people to vote by mail in the fall election and make it easier for them to do so.
More than two dozen states, including California, allow voters to designate other people beyond family members to drop off mail ballots. Some states have limits on the number of ballots one person can collect, but not California.
The USPS warning to nearly all 50 states that it might not be able to deliver ballots in time to be counted in the November election seems to have furthered interest in ballot harvesting. Some prominent Democrats say they are receiving queries from everyday people wanting to know how they can help pick up ballots.
Trump maintains efforts to expand voting by mail, ballot harvesting and even the use of ballot drop-off boxes will lead to election fraud. Trump and Republicans are taking action to limit each of those.
Yet all those have become increasingly common practices over the years, with third-party ballot collecting being the most recent.
Though evidence of ballot fraud is rare, there have been instances where it has surfaced. Election experts say the overall voting system is secure, though they acknowledge that voting by mail is more vulnerable to manipulation than in-person voting.
Following the 2018 election, several Republican leaders raised questions about ballot harvesting. The GOP lost numerous election-night leads in congressional races, particularly in California, where Democratic organizations delivered many ballots shortly before and on Election Day, which contributed to an extended count.
After losing the majority in the House of Representatives, Republicans said they needed to catch up to Democrats in taking advantage of expanded ballot-collection laws.
Regardless, Trump has criticized ballot harvesting publicly and his campaign has filed lawsuits and taken other steps to restrict or ban the practice in Nevada, Arizona and other states.
In his broader fight against expanded use of mail ballots, the Trump campaign and the Republican Party have sued all 67 counties in Pennsylvania, a critical swing state, to stop them from creating satellite ballot drop-off sites, according to Courthouse News Service.
For context, San Diego County established more than 62 drop-off locations throughout the region during the March primary, according to county Registrar of Voters Michael Vu. For the fall election, he said the county will at least double the number of locations.
In San Diego, ballots can only be dropped off to people authorized by the registrar and there's a documented chain of custody when the locked boxes are transferred to processing facilities.
Trump suggests he wants the nation to revert to traditional, limited absentee ballots. That's not going to happen this fall, and probably never will. The country has been going in the opposite direction for years, with several states holding all mail-ballot elections as others, like California, have facilitated increasing numbers of people voting by mail.
With evidence of broad voter fraud lacking, Democrats contend Trump is trying to suppress their vote, given the party's demonstrated aptitude for capitalizing on laws regulating mail-voting and ballot-collection laws.
Some Trump critics contend he's trying to sow distrust of the entire voting system so he can more easily dispute the results if they don't go his way.
But a lot of Republicans also vote by mail and Trump could be undermining their confidence in the voting system, which could have consequences for down-ballot GOP candidates, if not for himself.
In San Diego County, more than 76% of the region's nearly 510,000 Republican registered voters are signed up to automatically receive mail ballots in every election. That nearly matches the percentage of Democrats who are permanent mail-ballot voters.
Despite the president's constant attacks on most voting by mail, polls show a strong majority of voters still favor it _ especially during the pandemic. A POLITICO/Morning Consult poll released earlier this month showed 58% agreed the U.S. "should allow all voters to vote by mail in elections this year" to help slow the spread of the highly contagious disease.
But the breakdown tells an all-too-familiar story about everything regarding politics these days: 81% of Democrats shared that view along with 57% of independents. Only 33% of Republicans thought everyone should be allowed to vote by mail.
What role third-party collections will play in delivering mail ballots won't be known until after the election.
While circumstances may seem ripe for expanded ballot harvesting, there's another unknown _ the extent to which voters might be reluctant to have contact with ballot collectors coming to their doors during the pandemic.
